Mapping Beneath the Surface, Landscapes in Cyanotype Print 3

Process of this work

The composition of this print is deeply influenced by vintage landscape photography plates and the analogue processes photographers once used to expand their field of view. I was particularly drawn to the way multiple film negatives were layered to create images that exceeded the limits of a single frame, allowing the full sweep of a landscape to be documented. 

Beyond the imagery itself, the application of the light-sensitive cyanotype solution became a creative act in its own right. I brushed it on in a painterly, intuitive way—letting some areas remain loose and fluid while concentrating others into denser pools of colour. These gestures echo the natural rhythms of the land: the way boundaries form and dissolve, the way forces move beneath and across the surface, seen and unseen.

The layered cyanotype chemistry creates a sense of depth that feels both atmospheric and geological. Areas of concentrated pigment pool into rich, velvety blues, while lighter washes open into airy, cloud-like formations. This interplay of density and openness mirrors the natural rhythms of the landscape — pressure building and releasing, boundaries forming and dissolving.

The archival negatives embedded within the composition act almost like a ghosted imprint of knowledge: a reminder of how we document the world, yet never fully grasp the forces beneath it’s surface. The grid-like marks and faint outlines hover within the swirling forms, creating a dialogue between the organic and the constructed, the intuitive and the analytical.